Northern California Baseball Blog and Q&A

Paul Gutierrez
Raised in Barstow, Calif., where he played community college baseball for two years, Paul Gutierrez has worked at Sports Illustrated and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he covered his alma mater's Runnin' Rebels at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. During a six-year stint at the Los Angeles Times, he co-authored Tommy Davis' "Tales from the Dodgers Dugout." He came to The Bee in October 2005 and is now a Bay Area sports features writer who concentrates on baseball during the spring and summer.

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July 15, 2007

Suspended games vs. official games

We want to make this blog as interactive as possible with readers, and as such one of its features is a Q&A section. Reader Glenn L. Spitzer of Sacramento asks: "Why are some baseball games considered complete games after 4 1/2 innings when rain stops play while others are completed at a later date? What is the determining factor between the two results?"

I emailed Michael Teevan of MLB's media relations department and this was his response: "Games completed at a later date are suspended games. A rule change that took effect this year calls for games that are tied after 4 1/2 innings to be picked up where it left off. It used to be that those games would be regulation tie games and replayed in their entirety. If a road team has had at least five innings at bat and is still losing, and the remainder of the game is deemed unplayable, the game can be called and the home team can be declared the winner. There are also rules that apply when a road team ties or takes the lead in the top of the inning - the game could be suspended and resumed where it left off."

Hope that helps, Glenn.

- Paul Gutierrez

Posted by Ahmed Ortiz, July 15, 2007 03:24 PM

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